Southgate battles back from the brink
Super subs lead comeback but Pope lets win slip
THERE were 19 minutes of an atrocious Nations League campaign remaining and England still hadn’t scored a goal from open play. And then, two came along at once. One from Luke Shaw, another from Mason Mount and then — good Lord — is that a foul on Jude Bellingham?
It was. Harry Kane stepped up. Harry Kane did what he usually does from the penalty spot. And England looked to be heading to Qatar on the back of victory over Germany. How, no one was quite sure. Yet if ever a team, a manager, needed a win no matter the narrative of the rest of the night it was England and Gareth Southgate. Yet if ever a team is short on confidence, it is England under Gareth Southgate.
So the advantage did not last. Nick Pope, standing in for Jordan Pickford, spilled one and Germany levelled through Kai Havertz. It was no more than they deserved.
So thrills, spills, excitement and all’s well again? Hardly. Yet England left the field to cheers not boos and a desperate, unlikely, fightback felt more impressive than it was. It wasn’t enough, and it surely won’t be in Qatar if England do not improve on this, but nobody can say this is not a team that tried for its manager. They looked dead at two goals down. But they found a way back into the game.
The manager says he’ll accept the criticism and after this there is going to be plenty of it, despite the draw. The faith he is showing in players who are desperately out of form, the staid style of play which gave Germany the initiative here, nothing looks wholly right.
Harry Maguire appears the only man in England with less rhythm than Tony Adams, yet Southgate keeps picking him. He was rewarded last night with one goal for which Maguire was at fault, twice, and another that began with a counter-attack after he lost possession in Germany’s half.
And if there was a groundswell of support for Maguire’s selection that would be different. But Erik ten Hag at Manchester United is no longer picking him, he has lost the club captaincy and everyone can see this is a player desperately out of form. He is playing without confidence and that is how it looked. Germany went two up, largely, down to him.
First Maguire gave the ball to Jamal Musiala with a sloppy pass, then he brought him down. Ilkay Gundogan scored the penalty, Pope standing up and then being outwitted with the ball slid into the corner. Soon after, Maguire went on a run, was nailed in possession and Germany broke. The old Chelsea partnership of Timo Werner and Havertz combined, and Germany were two clear.
The mood at Wembley was threatening to turn ugly when the revival began. Great work by Bellingham found Shaw on the left and his shot went through the legs of goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Just three minutes later a shot from Mason Mount after a fine run by Bukayo Saka levelled. When Nico Schlotterbeck fouled Bellingham soon after, VAR intervened and delirium resulted.
It was not to be. Serge Gnabry shot, Pope — who had a poor game — could not hold it, Havertz equalised. It was better than it could have been but nobody should kid themselves. One harem-scarem draw cannot erase the memories of this campaign.
The last time God Save the King was sung at a Wembley international was November 28, 1951, a 2-2 draw with Austria. Alf Ramsey
and Nat Lofthouse scored, Jackie
Milburn couldn’t have got in the team, and Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen would have started but for injury. Those were the days.
Of course, that was largely the squad that went to the World Cup the year before and lost to the United States, so maybe those weren’t the days either. In truth there haven’t really been too many days for England if we remove 1966 and recent years under Southgate.
Except nobody thinks these are the days now, either. England came into this match relegated, and on the back of all sorts of horrid, unwanted, records to do with losing streaks and scoring droughts.
It was reflected in the mood. The national anthem was sung with gusto but it was hard to tell the difference between the silence for Queen Elizabeth II and the reaction to the match itself.
Increasingly, this feels like the endgame of the Gareth Southgate era. His detractors have forgotten what it was like before he arrived, his champions are not getting enough to work with. Strange decisions, too. The one to exclude Trent Alexander-Arnold from the match 23 seemed particularly bizarre, creating an issue where there shouldn’t have been one. It was the exact opposite of what Southgate usually does.
Fortunately, Germany are not the force they were, either, despite possessing some of the Premier League’s marquee names. They had the best of the first half, but lost their way at the mid-point and came close to letting England lead. There is a reason why this team had scored one goal in this Nations League campaign before last night, however, and not from open play. Raheem Sterling had an exceptional chance on 25 minutes, but did not take it.
It’s a strange tournament, though, the Nations League. In part it is a genuine competition with a finals and kudos for the winners, humiliation and the drop for the losers. It also serves as a testing ground for fringe players, pitting them against opponents of similar ability, not those who wish to keep the score down to 5-0.
So Pope comes in for the injured Pickford and does not spend 90 minutes counting the floodlights. He is tested with the ball at his feet, and lively forwards bearing down. And, just as in Milan on Friday, he didn’t look comfortable. His first touch involved him serving up the ball under pressure and expressing a sigh of relief, no doubt, when Gundogan spooned his shot over the bar.
There were hairy moments after that, not least when Thilo Kehrer took a tumble in the area and it looked as if Sterling might have made contact. Referee Danny Makkelie rightly waved play on.
At the other end, England had two decent chances which at least roused the crowd into some form of vocal appreciation, if only for Maguire, who must have been grateful after his name was met with a smattering of boos when the teams were read out.
John Stones went off with what looked a hamstring injury after 37
minutes. There is time to recover, of course, but a bad hamstring can take as long as six weeks, which runs into the early part of November. He could be another one, along with the out-of-favour United pair Maguire and Shaw, who heads to Qatar undercooked.
Still, at least Shaw will have left Southgate with a good impression. He played arguably the pass of the night to put Sterling in after 25 minutes, a beautiful curling affair that took three German players out at once and left the Chelsea man clear. Ter Stegen made an outstanding save to deny him.
Within two minutes, England had a corner. Kane won his header which was blocked but the ball came out to his feet and his firsttime shot dipped narrowly past the far post. There were other opportunities, too, but the final pass was sloppy. And international football punishes sloppiness.